Chapter 27: Scammer Decides to Be a Good Person. 2, This Kind of Meal Really Is…

Shi Lan saw him.

That man who was portrayed in the book as peerless in grace.

He wore his hair in a short buzz cut, and his clothes and face were covered in mud and grime as he lifted the plastic sheet and ducked out of the work shed.

He was only standing there, yet even this desolate night seemed to brighten with color because of him.

Handsome, truly handsome.

The words in the book hadn’t even captured a tenth of it.

No wonder that even among a crowd of grimy workers on a construction site, a talent scout had still managed to pick him out.

After seeing so many mass-produced pretty-boy idols on screen, having an immortal-like beauty suddenly appear in front of her left Shi Lan feeling like her eyes had been overfed.

She only wanted to ask the original owner of this body, was she blind?

How could she bring herself to scam someone this beautiful?!

At that moment, Shi Lan made up her mind. She was definitely keeping this man.

At that moment, Shi Lan was stunned.

Du Heng was stunned too, and his eyes were red.

Shi Lan was afraid that the moment he opened his mouth, he’d burst into tears.

“I brought you some cake.”

“Where did you go?”

They spoke at the same time.

Then fell silent at the same time.

On the way here, Shi Lan had rehearsed her statement over and over again many times.

Now, the words came out as smoothly as if she were reciting from memory.

“Didn’t I tell you I was going to deposit the money?” she said, pretending to be puzzled, then took out the bankbook¹ and showed it to him. “Here, take a look.”

Du Heng took the bankbook and read it by the faint light of dawn. The amount recorded on it was a little over twenty-seven thousand yuan.

Shi Lan began making things up. “Most of it is your money. I didn’t put in much. But I’ve thought it over too. If I keep making money washing hair and saving it penny by penny, I’ll never get rich in a million years. So I quit my job at the salon and decided to try a different line of work. I mean, I can’t let you keep exhausting yourself all alone forever. That’s what I’ve been busy with these past two days. As soon as I got everything settled, I came to find you. I even brought you cake.”

Shi Lan spoke with utter conviction, but Du Heng was locked in a battle between his heart and his head and couldn’t tell whether she was telling the truth.

For a moment, he lowered his head and didn’t dare look at her.

“No, what’s with that reaction?” Shi Lan asked.

“N-no… it’s nothing.”

“Oh, I didn’t come see you for two days, so you thought I ran off with your money, didn’t you?” Shi Lan bluffed boldly and went on the offensive first.

Du Heng said nothing and lowered his head even further.

Jeez, his fighting strength was really pathetic. He didn’t even dare confront her. No wonder he’d been scammed again and again.

Still, that made it easier for Shi Lan to keep the lie going. “Wow, Du Heng. So that’s the kind of person I am in your heart? If you didn’t trust me, why did you give me the money in the first place? And after all that, I even bought you cake. Wuwuwuwu… we might as well just break up.”

Du Heng was a little shocked. Shi Lan had always been gentle and soft-spoken before, so why did she seem a little… well… fiery this time?

Could it be that he really had wronged her and hurt her badly?

He immediately became flustered.

“Don’t cry… I was wrong… I shouldn’t have thought that way about you…” he stammered incoherently, stuffing the bankbook back into Shi Lan’s arms. “Here, you keep this… from now on, I’ll trust you completely.”

Shi Lan: “…”

Jeez, this male lead was absurdly pure. He didn’t even last a single round.

Shi Lan shoved the bag of cake into his arms and made as if to leave, looking utterly heartbroken.

She walked a few steps and, hearing no one chase after her, turned around. Du Heng was still standing where he was, looking frantic.

Shi Lan: “…”

She spoke. “What are you standing there for? It’s so dark, and this place is so remote. You want me to go back alone?”

“I’ll take you!” Du Heng said immediately.

What a dummy, Shi Lan thought.

On the way back, Du Heng kept apologizing to her the whole time, though his words were a little limited. One moment it was, “Don’t cry anymore,” and the next it was, “Don’t be mad, I was wrong.”

So much so that Shi Lan couldn’t even find an opening to let him off the hook.

“We’re here,” Shi Lan said.

Du Heng had followed Shi Lan the whole way with his mind nowhere near the road, so only now did he realize they had arrived at a single-story house with a yard.

Shi Lan said, “This is the new place I’m renting.”

This house had two rooms and a small yard, with a storage shed behind it. It had originally been built for the person watching over the shed. Later, the shed was abandoned and torn down, but this guardhouse was left standing.

Shi Lan had picked it mainly because it had its own bathroom and kitchen, so she wouldn’t have to share with anyone. Also, since it came with a yard, she could keep a dog. At night, at least she’d hear some movement, and those sneaks and petty thieves wouldn’t be quite so bold.

And besides, she hadn’t just said she was changing to another line of work to fool Du Heng. She really was planning to do something, and having a bigger place would be more convenient.

Shi Lan opened the door and beckoned Du Heng inside.

Just looking at the door made her annoyed. She had checked several places, and not one had a proper security door. They all had those old-fashioned latch locks. As far as she was concerned, those things were practically the same as having no lock at all.

She had once seen a documentary showing that with this kind of old lock, all you needed was a hard thin card like an ID card or a bank card. Slip it through the crack in the door, work it a couple of times, and the latch would slide right open.

After escorting her back and seeing her enter the house, Du Heng said, “Then get some sleep early. I’ll come see you again tomorrow.”

He even left the bag of cake behind.

Shi Lan grabbed him. “Don’t go back. Pack up your things. From now on, you’ll live here with me.”

Du Heng froze. “Huh?”

Uh… in this situation, with words like that, it really was easy to misunderstand.

“I’m a girl living here by myself. Are you really okay with that?”

Du Heng frowned, clearly having never thought of that.

To be honest, Shi Lan herself wasn’t okay with it. What happened at the train station had scared her badly enough. She really didn’t dare joke around with her own safety.

As for whether Du Heng was dangerous?

Well, to put it this way, Shi Lan felt like she was still in the stage of thinking of him as a paper-thin fictional character. What bad intentions could a beautiful paper-man male lead possibly have? And even if something did happen, it wasn’t certain who would come out worse.

So Shi Lan added an explanation. “There are two rooms here. We’ll take one each. It’s close to your construction site too. That’s got to be better than living in a work shed with a huge crowd of people.”

“Okay,” Du Heng agreed.

Shi Lan took him to see the other room.

“It just doesn’t have a bed in it. But I bought bedding, so you can sleep on the floor tonight. We’ll get a bed another day.”

Du Heng said, “No need. Bricks and wooden planks will do. I can build one. Tomorrow I’ll go to the construction site and bring back some materials.”

“Fine, make it yourself.”

Shi Lan then gave him the share of toiletries she had bought for him.

She was exhausted after the whole day. After giving Du Heng a few instructions, she casually wiped herself down and collapsed into bed. In her daze, she thought she heard the sound of splashing water. Du Heng was probably taking a bath.

Half asleep, she was still wondering what kind of breathtaking sight this beauty would make fresh out of the bath… and then she plunged straight into dreamland.

Early the next morning, Shi Lan heard some faint rustling noises in the yard.

She went out to take a look, and wow, good grief.

All the weeds in the yard had been pulled out. Fallen leaves, dust, and pebbles had all been swept away until everything was spotless. Even the dead corners along the walls hadn’t been ignored. There had originally been a little puddle of standing water in the middle of the yard, but now it had been filled in with dirt. The whole yard had been cleaned up until it was neat and level.

Near the kitchen, there was even a simple table made out of cement and bricks. The tabletop had been pieced together from several ceramic tiles. Judging from the look of them, they seemed to be floor tiles.

At that moment, Du Heng was standing on what looked like a ladder he had made himself by the courtyard wall, pressing broken beer bottle shards into the still-wet cement on top of the wall.

He turned his head and asked, “Did I wake you?”

Without a watch, Shi Lan didn’t know the exact time, but one look at the daylight told her it wasn’t early anymore. Wasn’t it obvious enough, considering the beautiful male lead had already done this much work?

She couldn’t tell whether he genuinely thought he had woken her or was being sarcastic.

But with how little scheming he had, it was probably the former.

Shi Lan didn’t dwell on it and asked instead, “What are you doing?”

“This courtyard wall is still a bit low. It’d be easy for someone to climb over, so I’m putting some broken beer bottle glass² on top. It’ll be a little safer that way.”

Shi Lan was pleased. He really was the kind of good man who could take care of a home.

She’d brought up safety twice yesterday, and today he was already trying to come up with a solution on his own. Not bad at all.

“You’re up. Let’s eat breakfast,” Du Heng said as he jumped down from the ladder.

Shi Lan was still wondering how there could be breakfast when they didn’t even have a pot.

Then she realized that by breakfast, he meant the bag of loose cakes she had bought yesterday, plus two bowls of water.

Yes, plain water. She suspected he’d filled it straight from the tap without even boiling it.

This was already the nineties. Surely people weren’t still drinking raw water, right?

Their male lead proved with his actions that yes, they absolutely were.

He took two or three bites of a little cake, then gulped down half a bowl of water, eating with obvious delight.

It was clear he really did like sweets. His eyes were nearly squinting into a line from happiness.

Poor kid.

Sigh. After holding the bowl of water for ages, Shi Lan still didn’t dare challenge herself. She decided to let herself off the hook. She could adapt to local customs, sure, but there was really no need to try drinking unboiled water.

Du Heng really wasn’t picky.

After finishing the work in the yard, he went off to his job, and when he came back, he even thoughtfully brought lunch for Shi Lan.

One lunch tin full of vegetables and a few mantou³.

The dish was stir-fried cabbage and potatoes? Probably stir-fried, anyway, because there was a bit of oil visible, but it was so watery that half the container was broth.

As for the taste… put it this way, Shi Lan had never in her life eaten vegetables this awful. Forget the cabbage. What kind of cursed cooking skills did it take to make versatile, foolproof potatoes taste that bad?

And even so, Du Heng was still being polite, urging Shi Lan to eat more.

Thanks, but she really couldn’t force down another bite.

The mantou, on the other hand, were steamed quite well. The dough had risen nicely, and they were whole wheat too. The only problem was that there was no sugar in them, and Shi Lan liked her mantou with a bit of sweetness.

So she just gnawed on the mantou plain.

Du Heng said, “You like mantou? The construction site cafeteria makes white mantou once a week, and they’re better than these. I’ll bring you some then.”

Oh. Shi Lan finally realized that in this era, coarse grains probably weren’t considered healthy eating. So what she thought was whole wheat was actually just… because the food was bad?

Mm, got it.

Got it my ass. Damn it, this was the nineties, right? Not the hardship years of the sixties⁴, living on husks and wild greens. And this was the opening setup?

The male lead was way too miserable!

No, this had to change. Improving their meals was an urgent priority.

Shi Lan might not be good at other things, but when it came to food, that was her specialty.

Her family had run a restaurant to begin with, and although she had limited mobility herself, she loved staying home and researching recipes.

She’d even made an account and become a food blogger.

Ancient recipe recreations, banquet dishes, street snacks, Chinese food, Western food, there were too many things she knew how to make.

Shi Lan had originally been thinking about getting into the food business anyway, but she couldn’t take too big a step right at the start, so she’d begin with a street stall selling boxed lunches.

Judging by the bowl of noodles she ate yesterday and today’s cafeteria food…

Honestly, Shi Lan wouldn’t even need to try that hard to crush the competition.

When she was looking at houses yesterday, she’d observed the area too. The foot traffic nearby was actually pretty decent.

There was a construction site, factory buildings, schools…

For a small business, there was no way this wouldn’t turn a profit.

Shi Lan instructed Du Heng, who was still eating that watery cabbage, “Don’t go to work tomorrow. Ask the construction site for a day off.”

“What for?”

What for?

Obviously to pick up all the equipment Shi Lan had custom-made at the hardware market, then start buying supplies and get the stall up and running as soon as possible!!!

She truly could not endure even one more meal like this!!!

Translator’s Notes